Havre road trip

No post yesterday... I was on the road.   Donna's daughter had to return to work on Monday.  Her husband wanted to stay here and spend a few days fishing with friends.  So Donna and her daughter hatched a plan for Donna to drive her daughter home and leave the vehicle here for the husband to drive home later.  Otherwise he would have had to catch a train home.

But they needed one more thing to make their plan work.  Donna had a doctor appointment early Monday morning so she needed to be back home by then.   The distance was over 250 miles...  one way.  Over 500 miles round trip.  The trip would take over 4 hours each way.  And the time was after 5 pm.  So she asked if I would go with them and help drive back.  

A 500 mile 8 hour round trip over night.  Why not?

Besides I can talk.   And talk.  And that would make the time go faster.  For Donna's daughter I did make the time go faster.  I talked so much she fell asleep while I was talking. 

I'm not sure when we left.  After 6 pm I think.   We arrived at 10:37 pm.   After a quick tour of the daughter's house Donna and I left to return at 11:07 pm.   The "Highline" highway (U.S. 2) doesn't have much traffic, and certainly very little traffic in the Winter and Spring.  We saw very few cars on our drive.  The area is lightly populated so there weren't many lights visible during our drive other than when we passed through the occasional small town.  Surprisingly Browning, MT looks much bigger lit up at night than during the day.  Other structures lit up at night were the grain elevators along the railroad track.  And lastly I can not help mention the vast field of blinking red lights atop the numerous wind towers near Cutbank, MT.

The Highline highway mostly parallels the railroad.  While rail traffic is down we did met over a half dozen trains - almost as many cars on the highway that we met.

Donna can get car sick.  She first felt queasy when we dropped into Shelby, MT.   But the feeling passed on the straight stretch of road between Shelby and Cutbank.  Then the drop west of Cutbank brought it back again.   The mostly straight road between Cutbank and Browning made her feel better.

The problem is that west of Browning we entered the mountains.  The road rose and dropped and twisted and turned.   Usually when Donna drives she is fine.  Not this time.  At Marias Pass I had to take back over driving.

Donna had it bad.  She said it was the worst she ever felt.  I had to drive 40 mph and under.  We stopped numerous times so she could get out of the car and walk a bit and get fresh air.

It didn't help that we drove along a freight train for a while.  The sight of the locomotives lit up made Donna feel worse.  And not helping was the sound of the train car wheels screeching and squealing constantly as the brakes were applied as the train came off Marias Pass.

With little to no traffic on the straight sections of road prior to the mountains I had made really good time.  Then things slowed down.  I didn't get home until 3:50 am.  Donna was in rough shape.  I spoke with her today and she said after sleeping until the afternoon she felt much better.

I slept late, though I didn't get my full eight hours of sleep.  I woke up to find another calf born earlier Monday morning.

A few photos of Glacier Park mountains as we drove over to Havre.